Fateful Choices
by Ashen Tears
Summary: Broderick Wizard is trapped. Will he risk losing his son Jonah...or will he hand the Janus serum to the Vespers? Read on!
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys! This fan fiction is going to be in five parts – each one narrated from the POV of a member of a different branch. T**

For the first time in his life, Jonah Wizard was nervous before a concert.

"What's wrong, Jonah?" asked Brent Kutzle, unzipping his guitar case. "This isn't your first time on stage.

Brent Kutzle, the bassist of OneRepublic, had been roped in by Jonah's dad for this tour. His other crewmates were Green Day drummer Tré Cool and U2 lead guitarist The Edge. All Janus, of course.

Jonah shook his head and cracked a smile. "Nah, just a bit tired."

The truth was, Jonah really hadn't been the same since the gauntlet. He felt proud he'd made the right choice, but he knew there was another side to himself. If something like that happened again, he really didn't know what he'd do.

Tré Cool tightened the screws on his crash cymbal. "Yeah, this tour's been long, all right."

"Not to say it hasn't been fun," The Edge corrected, tuning up his signature Gibson Explorer.

Jonah stood up. "Well then, let's go give our audience the time of their lives!"

The velvet curtain was pulled back, and they walked onstage.


	2. Chapter 2

Broderick Wizard's phone buzzed gently in his left pocket.

Nothing strange about that. It wouldn't be the first time he was asked to pass fan messages on to Jonah. But he checked it anyway.

It was short, all of three sentences, but it sent shivers down Broderick's back.

Did you think you could hide forever?

We want the Janus serum. And you will give it to us, if you value your son's life.

There was no signature or sender ID, but Broderick knew all too well who had sent it. A group he had sworn to turn his back on forever. And now they had found him.

He forced himself to calm down. He couldn't be sure who had sent it, but if it was who he thought it was, things were about to get a whole lot more complicated.


	3. Chapter 3

Jonah walked back to the limo, exhilarated. He'd sung his heart out for two-and-a-half hours, ending with a surprise medley of OneRepublic's 'All The Right Moves', Green Day's 'Basket Case', U2's 'Beautiful Day' and his own 'How the Feuding Hurts.

He had to be careful to slip out the back – who knew how many deranged fans were near the front?

He slipped into his personalized Hummer H2 stretch limo. That car had it all – video game systems, plasma TVs, 20 speakers, even a lighted dance floor!

Inside, he saw his father, who for once wasn't wearing his thumbs out on his BlackBerry. Instead, he was lying down on one of the seats, staring at the ceiling.

"Um, Dad?" Jonah asked. "You all right?"

Broderick sat up abruptly. "What? Oh, hi, Jonah. Yes, everything's fine."

Jonah could tell something was up, but he didn't want to push his dad. Now that Mom wasn't talking to him…

He shook his head. _Dad will tell me when he wants to_, he told himself.

He flopped down on one of the seats – almost a sofa, really – and picked up an Xbox 360 remote. Maybe blasting a couple Covenants in Halo Reach would take his mind off things.

_I haven't seen Dad this worried in ages_, he thought as the limo pulled onto the highway. _I hope nothing serious is wrong._

He couldn't have been farther from the truth.


	4. Chapter 4

By the time they reached the Times Square hotel, Broderick's heart was pounding. He knew he had to tell _someone_, but he didn't want to burden Jonah with something like this. And now that Cora had been exiled from the Janus for losing the Clue hunt…

He took a deep breath and pulled himself together. He had to admit that this was serious. Jonah trusted him implicitly, so there was no way he could hide this.

He knocked on the door of Jonah's bedroom in the suite. "Jonah? Can you come out? There's…there's something I want to tell you.

Jonah could not believe his ears.

If he were to, he'd have to accept that his father was actually a Vesper.

"Not anymore," Broderick told him. "I had no idea about my heritage until I was thirteen. Then I saw them murder an innocent child right before my eyes. They knew I wouldn't keep quiet, so they had to tell me. When I was eighteen, though, I ran away. I couldn't take it, so I quit. I hoped they wouldn't find me.

"But they have. And they've given me a choice: to hand over either the Janus serum…or you."


	5. Chapter 5

By 5 o' clock that evening, Jonah and his father were trudging up the hill towards the famous Hollywood sign.

Broderick glanced down. "Wow. You can see why this is so famous. It must be easy to see even from passenger planes!"

Jonah panted. "I'll be in more of an admiring mood once I've recovered from the climb."

At last they reached the top. Carefully, Jonah stepped over to the first 'O' in the word Hollywood, searching for the hidden retinal scanner he knew would be there.

When he finally found it, he pressed a small button and stared into the light. Noiselessly, a hidden door slid open, and the two stepped inside.

They emerged into a brightly lit corridor. As they walked along it, it spiraled deeper and deeper, into the very center of the hill.

After about five minutes, they came to a large conference hall. Many of the Janus High Council members were already there, but there was no sight of branch leader Spencer Langodeon, who had taken over since Cora Wizard's exile.

Jonah and his father settled themselves in their allotted seats and waited. They didn't have to wait long, though.

Suddenly, the room fell quiet. With a flourish, a tall man strode on stage.

This was not the first time Jonah had seen Spencer Langodeon; even so, he was impressed. He was wearing a dark suit and white gloves. The clothes appeared very somber, but there was a twinkle in his eyes that hinted at humor. Still, there was a charisma about him that gave a sense of power.

He began to speak in a lilting voice. "Fellow Janus, I would like to welcome you back once again. Not all of you know the exact reason for our gathering here, so I will clear your doubts with one word.

"Vespers."

There were gasps and muttering from the crowd. Apparently, this was news to everyone except the Wizards.

"We know," he began, silencing the crowd, "that they are ruthless beyond measure. They are threatening the bond that keeps us together, asking for a priceless secret: the Janus serum."

Someone stood up. "How dare they?" he shouted. "To do so is to dishonor Jane Cahill herself!"

"Friends," Langodeon said, "I agree with you wholeheartedly. This is preposterous! We will never submit to these threats! Which is why I would like to propose a plan." Everyone was instantly silent. "We will resist for a few days, then hand over a fake formula to buy some time. Meanwhile, we will need some of our agents to attempt to infiltrate the Vespers." He spread his arms. "Those in favor?"

Nearly four-fifths of all the hands went up. Jonah and his father were not among them.

"This isn't the right way to go about it!" Jonah whispered to Broderick, outraged. "If our spies are discovered, who knows what the Vespers are capable of doing to them?"

Broderick nodded. "This does not make sense at all. But there's no changing it now."


	6. Chapter 6

Five hours later, back at the hotel, Jonah was lying on his bed moodily when Broderick came into the bedroom.

"They contacted me again," he said grimly, passing a laptop to Jonah.

Jonah didn't ask for clarification. He didn't need to.

The laptop screen showed a message open on his father's email account from ''. The message was brief and to the point.

It's up to you – your son or the serum. You have one week to choose.

Jonah scratched his head. "Isn't that almost the same as what the last message said?"

Broderick shrugged. "Beats me."

Suddenly, Jonah noticed a light flashing at the bottom right corner of the screen. He clicked on it, and a message scrolled across the screen.

WARNING

AN UNKNOWN SERVER IS ATTEMPTING TO COPY FILES FROM THIS MACHINE.

Jonah frantically tried to close the dialog box, but to no avail. Desperate, he hit the power button, and didn't relax until the screen dimmed and shut off.

Broderick unclenched his fists. "What was that?"

Jonah didn't answer for a while. He opened the file manager and sorted through documents until he found what he was looking for.

"The list of Janus clues," he breathed. "The Vespers were trying to steal it."


	7. Chapter 7

Jonah was crushed.

_Stupid, stupid, STUPID_, he said to himself, over and over again, lying on his bed. He'd done just what he promised himself he wouldn't do – underestimate his opponents. The last night, he'd nearly lost the Janus serum formula. To top that off, the Janus High Council had messed up big time. Why weren't they smart enough to see that it would fail.

He paused in his mental rant. _They weren't _smart_ enough…_

He sat up and reached for his bedside table. He picked up his iPhone 4 and scrolled through the contact list. Highlighting one, he pressed the call button.

He put it to his ear as he waited for the connection to be made.

"Hello?" he said. "Ned? I've got a couple questions for you."


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, Ned Starling arrived from Los Angeles. Jonah couldn't go to the airport himself (it would probably cause a stampede), but he sent a chauffeured Bugatti Veyron to pick him up.

He came in to find Jonah pacing up and down the hotel room. He looked up as Ned came in.

"Ned, I really need your help," he said. "I didn't know who I could trust to do this.

"Calm down, Jonah," Ned soothed, "and tell me what you want me to do."

Jonah led him over to the laptop. "My dad got an email from the Vespers yesterday. The content isn't important; there was a virus attached which started downloading files from the Janus archives."

"Hmm." Ned looked thoughtful. "Did you manage to cancel the download?"

"I shut the computer down in the middle of the download," Jonah replied.

"Then the virus was probably deactivated," Ned reasoned. "Something that powerful can generally only be used once without wearing down the circuits."

"I see," Jonah fibbed. "Okay, I don't see. But what I want to know is: can you trace it?"

"Probably." Ned chewed his lip. "I need to see the email, though."

Jonah called his dad into the room. He logged into his Hotmail account and opened the message.

"Okay, then…let's see…" Ned clicked on 'Mail Display Settings' and toggled the 'Message Headers' option to 'Full'.

Jonah couldn't make head or tail of what Ned was doing. He looked at Broderick, who was equally baffled.

_He's an Ekat_, Jonah reminded himself. _He knows what he's doing._

Ned returned to the message, but something was different. Now, there was a set of numbers in the heading. _An IP address_, Jonah realized.

Now, Ned opened another browser window, copying the IP address into an input box. Then he sat back, waiting for the data to process.

Soon enough, a tone came from the laptop. A map appeared on screen, and all three of them leaned forward to examine it.

Ned sighed. "It looks like," he said, "this message was sent from downtown Chicago. That's where we'll find the Vespers."

Jonah gave him a high five. "Great work, Ned. You're coming with us, right?"

Ned gave him a sly grin. "I wouldn't miss it for anything!"


	9. Chapter 9

The address led them to a warehouse across the street from the famous Willis Tower.

"Okay," Ned said. "Let's go over this again. Your dad goes in the front door, watching out for traps. I'll cover him." He held up a small ballpoint pen. Jonah shivered at the sight of it.

It didn't look like much, but before they'd left, Ned had mixed up some chloral hydrate. It could knock out an adult in five seconds. Then, he'd modified two ballpoint pens to hold darts instead of a refill, and added small trigger buttons.

"Meanwhile," Ned continued, "you're going to climb up and enter from a second floor window. Take out any guards with your dart gun. With any luck, we'll meet you inside, and we'll try to figure out how they know so much about us."

"Got it," Jonah confirmed. "Good luck."

"We'll all need it," Ned said grimly.


	10. Chapter 10

At first, everything went smoothly. Broderick stepped through the front door, setting off an alarm. Guards rushed out the door, only to be pegged back by Ned's stun darts.

By the time the first alarm went off, Jonah was onto the window sill. He gritted his teeth, grabbing onto a corrugated iron sheet and hauling himself up.

That's where it all went wrong.

More guards swarmed onto the second floor balcony, armed with nasty-looking stun guns. Jonah was trapped. If he dropped, he'd hurt himself on the cement and would be a sitting duck. He couldn't move to the side fast enough, and he couldn't reach his own dart gun without falling.

Then he felt something swish past his ear. One of the guards fell, clutching his shoulder, and the rest retreated hurriedly. He looked down to see Ned give him a thumbs up.

Jonah forced himself up again. The guards wouldn't stay back for long, and he had to be armed when they came again.

When, at long last, he made it up, he took out the remaining guards with a couple neat shots, then dashed downstairs to clear the way for Broderick and Ned. It was over in minutes.

Broderick stood up from the table he'd been sheltering under. "Nice shooting, Jonah."

Ned wiped the perspiration from his forehead. "Okay, then, let's see what we can find."


	11. Chapter 11

They scoured the warehouse, and eventually chanced upon a small HP laptop.

Ned inserted a CD. "It contains a password-cracking software," he explained. "So we can get in and copy the files off." He showed them a small Memory Stick.

He booted up the computer, selecting some options on the startup menu. It took a while, but whatever was on that CD must have worked, because the screen shifted to the Windows 7 desktop.

Ned clicked on the file manager, and a window popped up. He clicked on Local Disk C.

Nothing.

He checked the other hard drive as well, even scanning for hidden files on both. But the search came up blank.

"Only one explanation," Jonah said. Broderick and Ned looked at him.

"They figured out that we'd tracked them, and now they've flown the coop." He looked at Ned. "Could they have detected our trace."

"Well," Ned said slowly, "it would be tough, but they could do it."

Broderick slammed his fist on the table. "We nearly had them!"

Jonah shut off the laptop and popped out the CD. "Maybe," he said as they walked out. "But next time, we'll be ready."

**And that concludes the Janus part. Next up is the Lucians – Dan Cahill. Leave your reviews to let me know what you think. Thanks!**


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